Support by Friendly Arm?

[thomaspfeiffer]

I was just walking through some threads in this forum. I experienced at least two threads with unsolved issues and no help from Friendly Arm:
* DS18B20 not working on NanoPi NEO Air [1]
* PWM on NanoPi NEO Air [2]

So i wonder if Friendly Arm could support the great people who provide Armbian or DietPi instead of building an own but not fully working image. This might be even cheaper and at the end of the day we get a better software support of the NanoPi NEO Air (which is a great device that earns more attention by the community).

Just my 2 cents ...

Thomas

[1] viewtopic.php?f=47&t=393
[2] viewtopic.php?f=47&t=392

[Mindee]

We'll check about the DB18B20 device, but we have no idea on PWM driver? May be you need a NanoHat-Hub, it's really nice.

P.S. It seems that nobody can make the H3's PWM working for now.

[Mindee]

I was just walking through some threads in this forum. I experienced at least two threads with unsolved issues and no help from Friendly Arm:
* DS18B20 not working on NanoPi NEO Air [1]
* PWM on NanoPi NEO Air [2]

So i wonder if Friendly Arm could support the great people who provide Armbian or DietPi instead of building an own but not fully working image. This might be even cheaper and at the end of the day we get a better software support of the NanoPi NEO Air (which is a great device that earns more attention by the community).

Just my 2 cents ...

Thomas

[1] viewtopic.php?f=47&t=393
[2] viewtopic.php?f=47&t=392

Hi, Thomas

I don't think supporting a 3rd OS is better for us, the hardware making is a complex thing. For almost every board coming into the market, we do a deep and serious developing and testing, it decide the possibility, the quality, the percent of pass, and the accessories' compatibility.

For example on H3 boards
1. Nobody consider of reducing the H3's consumption before, till we released the NEO board and its code , you can check the armbian forum. It make the board smaller to be possible.
2. Less complain. You can check the armbian forum, few people ask about boards on how to record, how to use a USB wifi dongle, how to set up a wifi accessing, how to use I2S, how to connect a usb or CSI camera, how to use a I2C/SPI device, how to burn into eMMC, how to use QtE, etc.. We not only make a board, We also really want to help the user save time.

Without this, we can't design and make great hardware with better experience.

The allwinner chip just cheap, lack of tech support and datasheet, in fact we have worked on the PWM and DS18B20 for some time, but no result. Our FriendlyARM hacking boys will be very appreciated if somebody can give a clue of it.


Thank you

Mindee

[thomaspfeiffer]

I don't think supporting a 3rd OS is better for us, the hardware making is a complex thing.

I meant to support Armbian and DietPi instead of building an own OS. So you could use the joint forces of big communities and provide all your knowhow to these communities as well.

Just an example: Currently FriendlyArm's image is based on a 3.4.39 kernel. Armbian for the Nano Pi NEO Air is based on 3.4.113 and DietPi already uses 4.9.0.

From my point of view, your great tech people could do a much better job if they support Armbian and DietPi instead of for example upgrading the kernel vom 3.4.39 to 3.4.113. I'm quite sure there are a couple of topics where a community is able to do a great job and meanwhile FriendlyArm's tech people focus on specific NEO Air stuff.

For almost every board coming into the market, we do a deep and serious developing and testing, it decide the possibility, the quality, the percent of pass, and the accessories' compatibility.

This is great and this is exactly the job FriendlyArm's tech people are the best doing this job. But why wasting their time with building and supporting an own OS?

Thomas

[meisam]

I don't think supporting a 3rd OS is better for us, the hardware making is a complex thing.

I meant to support Armbian and DietPi instead of building an own OS. So you could use the joint forces of big communities and provide all your knowhow to these communities as well.

Just an example: Currently FriendlyArm's image is based on a 3.4.39 kernel. Armbian for the Nano Pi NEO Air is based on 3.4.113 and DietPi already uses 4.9.0.

From my point of view, your great tech people could do a much better job if they support Armbian and DietPi instead of for example upgrading the kernel vom 3.4.39 to 3.4.113. I'm quite sure there are a couple of topics where a community is able to do a great job and meanwhile FriendlyArm's tech people focus on specific NEO Air stuff.

For almost every board coming into the market, we do a deep and serious developing and testing, it decide the possibility, the quality, the percent of pass, and the accessories' compatibility.

This is great and this is exactly the job FriendlyArm's tech people are the best doing this job. But why wasting their time with building and supporting an own OS?

Thomas

I have the same opinion with you.
about Odroid and Raspberry , there is ultimately example and how to do . but about this kernel every thing is big question.
It do not match normal kernels nor Odroid or Raspberry. just a pin header is compatible. Even for a source downloading of
H3 should refer to full Chinese Baidu.com web.
The hardwares are much better than Raspberry or others . for example Raspberry has no real audio ! it simulates audio
with PWM , funny!
But here no problem on the hardware but weak support on the kernel.

[Mindee]

Hi,

According to our experience for tens years, I don't agree the new kernel version is better for the end-user.

As a maker or an amateur, you can try any new things. But the new kernel is not panacea.

1. if not us friendlyarm team, nobody try to reduce the H3's consumption for a very small size board.

2. Even though you choose the 4.xx kernel, you can't use the 2.8" TFT lcd on the h3 board easily, you can't use the ov5640 camera modules easily, and many other 3rd peripheral device.

That's any new kernel can't do, and that's why we insist of making our own OS, that do not suck too much, that's important for end-user. It can save much time for you, except you are a high level developer or you have a lot of free time for fun.

Anyway, our kernel can support more devices perfectly , but maybe the DietPi or armbian can support more software easily.

We'll be very appreciated if you give us any constructive advice on our OS.

Thank you

-- mindee

[Mindee]

And we'll have a look on 4.9.0


-- Mindee

[thomaspfeiffer]

Anyway, our kernel can support more devices perfectly , but maybe the DietPi or armbian can support more software easily.

What if somebody asks for the best (= the sum) of both worlds? Then we, the users, would have a perfect device support, a perfect software support, we would not have to deal with security issues and we even would have proper release notes.

We'll be very appreciated if you give us any constructive advice on our OS.

I'd love to - but i'm just a hobby python developer without any knowhow on kernel development. Nevertheless in my opinion, the NanoPi NEO Air is one of the best SoC. Therefore i mention it as often as possible to provide it some publicity.

Thomas